Episode 140: Feel Great About Sales: A Race Between Me and Myself with Deel’s Luke Floyd

Luke Floyd was the number one Senior Account Executive in North America last year for Deel, an organization that helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere. It’s global payroll for employees and contractors from around the world. Luke is a very direct sales professional who always tries to give his clients the same grace he gives himself. He knows that the most valuable asset that his prospects possess is their time and so he knows how important it is to value their time. Luke also served in the military prior to his sales career and we thank him for his service. This background has been integral in setting Luke up for sales success.

In this episode, Luke expounds on his role at Deel, quantifies his sales results, and shares some of his early sales experiences, from a door-to-door pest control sales job to a life insurance gig. Luke lists the three things he attributes most to his success which include, Sales as a Craft, Sales as Leadership, and having an IGST Mindset: Intention, Goals, Strategy, & Tactics. Luke speaks to his proudest accomplishments, betting on himself and getting back into sales, and his time serving in the military. Luke also shares other habits and routines that are critical to his success and provides advice to both beginner and veteran sales professionals.

Luke and Scott discuss the importance of investing in yourself as a sales professional and speak at length about why the Sales Success Summit is such an incredible tool for investing in your craft as a sales professional. As they close the episode, Luke issues an actionable challenge to the audience. He encourages listeners to craft their own IGST Mindset. Luke suggests that listeners write down one intention, knowing that this intention is likely to evolve or change over the course of your journey. Next, set a couple of hard goals that are going to help to achieve that intention. In doing so, this will lead you to a strategy which will help you set up your tactics for realizing the initial intention.

What We Covered:

00:01 – Scott takes a moment to thank today’s sponsors QuotaPath & Outreach
00:37 – Scott introduces today’s guest, Luke Floyd
01:23 – The top three things Luke attributes to his success
01:29 – Number One: Sales as a Craft
01:40 – Number Two: Sales as Leadership
01:59 – Number Three: Having an IGST Mindset: Intention, Goals, Strategy, & Tactics
02:29 – Scott and Luke expound on the concept of Sales as Leadership
04:40 – Luke explains his role at Deel and quantifies his sales results
06:16 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, QuotaPath
09:00 – Luke’s sales origin story
15:51 – Luke talks about his philosophy of achieving more while working less
19:01 – What mastery in craft looks like
22:37 – Obstacles Luke has had to overcome in his pursuit of growth
26:13 – What Luke would do differently if given the chance
28:28 – Scott takes a moment to thank one of today’s sponsors, Outreach
28:59 – What motivates and drives Luke
30:54 – Luke’s proudest accomplishment
32:07 – The most challenging part of Luke’s role
33:24 – The importance of having project management skills and experience
36:08 – Selling the process
43:15 – Luke takes the audience through a typical day in the life
47:17 – Luke expounds on the work he’s currently doing in commercial insight development
51:09 – Other habits and routines that are critical to Luke’s success
56:38 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Luke consumes
59:15 – Luke’s tech stack
1:00:44 – Why Luke does not subscribe to a specific sales philosophy
1:01:50 – Luke’s sales style
1:02:32 – One of Luke’s beliefs that the average sales professional would think is crazy
1:05:17 – An average sales professional’s belief that Luke thinks is crazy
1:06:49 – Advice Luke would give to an upstart sales professional
1:08:48 – Advice Luke would give to a struggling sales professional
1:13:18 – Luke talks about avoiding burnout and being a good teammate
1:15:44 – What it means to feel great about sales
1:18:44 – Final words of wisdom from Luke
1:26:17 – Scott takes a moment to promote the upcoming Sales Success Summit in Austin
1:28:24 – Luke issues an actionable challenge to the audience

Tweetables:

“How do I transition from thinking of my end goal as two hundred percent and instead of thinking of my end goal as the pursuit of mastery in sales, knowing that I will never get there – I will never be a master – but still pursuing that because it feels good when you hit those milestones along the way?” (20:06)

“We talk about adding value. That phrase has become incredibly meaningless, I feel like, recently. What I do know what is valuable for my customers to hear is whether you move forward with me or another vendor, here’s the stuff you gotta watch out for.” (41:240)

“RFPs (Requests for Proposal) are always written by somebody. It’s either by somebody internally that has previous exposure with a previous vendor or it is a current vendor writing the RFP. That doesn’t bode well for organizations like Deel where we’re doing things in a fundamentally different way.” (50:40)

“I don’t ever compare myself to other sellers at the organization because this isn’t a race between me and them. It’s a race between me and myself.” (52:02)

“I value my prospects’ time. A lot of people talk about giving value. I think the best thing you can do for another human being is value their time.” (1:02:15)

“There’s something between this visualization – being able to work to a feeling, not to some company’s metric of you – that is just jet fuel for human performance.” (1:18:29)

What We Covered:

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